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User blog:Lucid Dreemer/Why This Wiki Is So Inactive, and What Can be Done to Improve Matters
As evidenced by a cursory glance in recent wiki activity, this wiki is not very active, hosting a few individuals who pave short strings of activity only to leave a few days later; and leaving long-term members devoid of people with which to discuss their ideas and help them out to a fuller extent. To really see how far things have gone, go to this portion of the wiki's recent changes, where you will see the last 500 edits made, and by deduction, conclude that between March 9 and March 29 only about 500 edits were made on the entire wiki! (This includes move page logs, deletion logs, and edits that are merely maintenance.) Now, this is well-known, but why should this be so? Does it not seem suspicious that a Fan wiki to a show immensely popular with people of all ages, backgrounds, and beliefs is suffering from inactivity? Well, yes, and no. The truth of the matter is, is that most people do not contribute here because there are simply so many other more popular places to write their fan-fiction and post their OC's on, which over the years have amassed such a huge following that their very presence overshadows smaller communities like this one. It is the same reason why if you try to search for a SCP Wikia, you will find this one, a wiki which is barely heeded due to the fact there is already a site for SCP's that is in effect, a wikia of it's own! But - the title of this post wasn't "Why This Wiki is So Inactive, and How Thousands Can Join Our Wiki", nor was it "Why This Wiki is So Inactive" - instead, it was simply "Why This Wiki Is So Inactive, and What Can be Done to Improve Matters". Becoming the most popular is not what counts right now. Rather, what counts is making what we already have into something that people will want to contribute to and continue contributing to. So how can this be done? I mean, until now I haven't named any specific actions that can be taken, so I'll do that now. These are things anyone can do, and are very helpful even if they do not take that much effort. Small Things You Can Do *Leave messages on the Message Walls asking about the welfare of now inactive users and asking if they'd like to return. Terrarian Pony has been taking the lead in this and he sets a good example in this regard. *Write well-written stories and OC's. Some have complained about how many "Mary-Sue's" this wiki hosts - but, proportionally speaking, there will be less Mary Sues if you fill the rest of the wiki with higher-quality content. In other words, if you see something that could be written better, it's okay to rewrite it, provided you don't change the fundamental meaning and no edit-wars are caused because of this. *If you like a blog post, just say so in the comments below. Really, even if the comment is only "Cool.", or "Awesome!", it's better than nothing. *Ask questions and leave comments on people's Message Walls as soon as you have them, rather than shying away, fearing they might be busy or won't respond. Slightly Bigger Things That Can Be Done *By having a monthly series of awards for "most prolific fan-fic", "most well-written fan-fic", "funniest fan-fic", etc..., it may motivate people to contribute more. A little bit of competition isn't wrong, and it will be fair as everyone will receive commendation on their creations. *Another blog post on Community Central advertising this wiki wouldn't be so bad. It will surely garnish attention! *This site has a good background and interface, but certain aspects I feel could be customized just a tad more, such as the fact that custom badge pictures do not exist, but custom badge titles do, (if I were to compile a selection of pictures I feel are befitting the badges would anyone be willing to add them?) Also, can the Blog:Recent_posts portion of the wiki be added to the main pull-down menu underneath "Wiki Activity" and above "Random Page" in the "Explore" tab? The blog posts are otherwise not easily accessible, and they are a good source of conversation. ---- The final word on this, is that it's okay if this wiki is not as active as other ones, but let's try to make it a place that thrives even with only a few active members, beginning today. Category:Blog posts